From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Suggestion, costs, and benefits of using Austenitic nitro-hardened steel for car cylinder liners.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 14\3\ Scan071 | |
| Date | 28th September 1931 | |
| Handwritten: X 7050 BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} FROM R.{Sir Henry Royce} RS{Sir Henry Royce's Secretary}/M28.9.31. Handwritten: X.7050, X.5050 c. to SG.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} WOR.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} RG.{Mr Rowledge} c. to HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} re. CAR CYLINDER LINERS. We are pleased to see BY's suggestion of the possibility of another way of getting these in Austenitic steel. We think it will be worth while spending quite a sum of money if we can obtain Austenitic nitro-hardened liners at a cost which may be thought by other people prohibitive, because it will do so much towards increasing the reliability, and reducing the difficulties of such things as piston clearances and water joints - both rubber and fixed. I do not know the cost. We are prepared to go to some expense to obtain these until we obtain some and can find out their real value, but it would be preferable to a reduction of 5% or even 10% in the price of the engine. So in a costly aero engine I think it would be worth £100. extra cost - i.e. £8. per 5" liner extra - to get these liners in hardened steel with a co-efficient of expansion approximately equal to that of aluminium. To me this matter has always seemed more important than even a nitro-hardened crankshaft, and especially so at the moment as we hope to get some relief from the crankshaft bearings by the use of balance weights, but I understand that the nitro-hardened crankshaft is now not likely to prove much more costly than an unhardened one. R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||